>Perhaps the answer is this: in order to find a record in a database, if you
>don't know the index or unique ID of that record, you have to do a "brute
>force" search
Basically, that's right. However, you don't have to do a brute force
search. You can order the records on one or more keys of your
choosing and do something more sophisticated, like a binary search.
So, for instance, if you have N patients with 32 tooth records each,
order them alphabetically by patient/tooth #. Then, do a binary
search on every 32nd record until you find the patient, then iterate
through the 32 teeth records. That's just an example, not a
recommendation.
>I'm used to having DB files with searchable "keys" - in my example, the
>patient ID would be a keyed field - so it's very easy to go right to a
>record with a known key value. But I guess that's not possible in a Palm DB,
>because it seems the DB is just a text file - no supporting "keys" for rapid
>searching. Is that right?
That's correct. You have the freedom to organize the data any way you
want (the good news), and responsibility for maintaining it (the bad
news).
Regards,
Steve Mann
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